Kindness returned

The bedroom was lit only by the leaping glow of a carefully banked fire, but that illumination was sufficient to show the ornate four-poster bed and crisp satin sheets. The woman had led the way, towing a still-in-shock William Peterson behind her. She seemed to know the layout of the house perfectly, correctly identifying the third door along the hall as the access point for William’s bedroom. In the back of his dazed mind, William wondered just how she knew; the house itself was less than three years old and he had never brought any woman to his chamber before.

But the tugging on his hand was irresistible, as was the spicy scent the woman wore. A mixture of myrrh and saffron, with other less-recognizable herbs added, at William’s best guess. Tanya had liked myrrh, he remembered. Myrrh and ylang-ylang had been her favorite combination.

A slim hand prevented him from turning on the lights. Instead, the mystery woman turned slowly until her back was to the fire and the wraithlike glow of the low flames created a corona of light about her while sheathing her face and front in total shadow. Then the slim hands were on William’s neck, sliding around to bring her closer and her heated mouth found his.

The taste of peppermint and the scent of the herbal blend she wore hit him hard, like a hammer to the senses. The kiss deepened, her tongue coaxing his into the silky depths of her mouth, offering him her breath, her taste, her self in the kiss. Her body, still cloaked, pressed hard against his form, feeling the unmistakable evidence that he desired her pressing back at her, as though to tear through the layers of cloth still separating them and plunge into her core.

She pushed back, spilling him onto the bed and mounting him before he could recover, to stretch her full length against him and renew the interrupted kiss. Only when her pent-up breath could no longer be held did she break the pressure, and even then only with great reluctance.

The buttons on his shirt, like the clasp of her cloak, slid apart under her eager fingers, baring his chest to her touch. The lightweight dress, almost a sheer nightrail, was at best an insubstantial barrier to his questing hands. Hers slid over the accordion of his ribs, feeling the lines of muscle and sinew wrapping the torso. His hands slid upwards along her curves to her breasts, where they touched, gently at first, then harder, molding the supple flesh under the insistent pressure of his fingers.

She gasped at the searing heat of his touch. Her core, already alight with the promise of pleasure, spiraled higher into flame. Her breathing roughened and she lowered her mouth again to capture his, trapping his hands between her breasts and his chest and further inflaming her. The dampness of her sex added its own scent to the air as she spread her legs to straddle him, arousing him further with its erotic perfume.

She released his mouth only long enough to help him to shed his trousers and undergarments, allowing the proof of his arousal to stand straight, swelling into the nighttime darkness and the firelit mystery of her. Her soaking undergarments were likewise peeled away and she turned herself to offer her dripping sex to the mouth of her lover, even as she paid homage to his manhood. The sensation of his tongue as he tentatively lapped at her swollen lips was more than she could stand and she felt the muscles along her entire canal clench, emitting a flood of her hot liquid.

Then William’s penis was in her mouth, firm yet yielding, stroking along the silky wetness of her mouth and bumping the entrance to her throat. The sensation of his organ almost caused her to lose control; the feeling of his tongue as he cleaned up the flood she had released only added to the pleasure. He found the sensitive nub of her pleasure and sucked on it lightly, causing her to press herself harder against his mouth, offering him her essence even as she had offered her breath. Her mouth continued to stroke along the heavy shaft, bringing him to edge of climax before allowing him once more to slack off and wait for just the right moment.

At last she could stand it no further. Lifting her mouth off his member and her wanton dripping sex away from his mouth, she pivoted again, positioning herself at the tip of his manhood and sliding him into her drenched core with a single smooth stroke. The head of his penis brushed her cervix, causing stars to dance briefly before her eyes, and then she captured his mouth again, spreading herself to allow him to plunder her secrets and taste her sweetness again. Her hair spilled over his hands and downward, riotous masses of silk that twined themselves about his fingers and tangled across the bed.

The man thrust into the welcoming wetness, feeling his head slide the quivering membranes apart with each stroke. Her body gripped his as though it were wrapping his erect manhood in hot sodden silk, pouring heated oil over the wrappings to keep the wetness and temperature constant. He could feel the harder ring of her cervix as he thrust into her, bumping the edge of her womb and sending shudders like lightning through her frame. She moaned into his mouth, gasping for air and rocking her hips to allow him better access to the portions of her that needed attention.

She could feel the coil of desire and pleasure tighten in the pit of her belly, twisting and whirling into a fire-limned vortex of raw scarlet need, as she spread herself to her fullest extent, tears running down her face as she begged for more. And he did not disappoint her, slamming hard into her, sending stars of gold to detonate against the red rage of need as he impacted her cervix with every thrust. Blind to all but him, deaf to any cries but her own, she rode the swirling vortex until it shattered, sending white whips of lightning blazing through her body, tightening every muscle to rock-hard rigidity, clamping the invading organ between gushing walls of eagerness and sending him over the edge to fall free with her. The explosion of his seed against her womb was but an echo of the climax that had gripped her and turned her to stone for a moment.

How long they lingered in that nothing-place that lies between the worlds, the edge of eternity where only death and orgasm can transport one, neither knew nor cared. Almost as though they had burned out the flames of mortality, they floated in the nothingness of all, feeling the tremors of aftershocks race along their bodies, exchanging kisses of delightful sweetness and slowness.

After some measureless time, she disengaged him from her body, allowing him to flop gently upon his stomach as she lifted herself clear. The cloak was whirled about her once again as she stood, clothing her in mystery. The hair was ruthlessly tucked away beneath the hood even as William sought to rise.

“Goodbye, William. Sleep well, and dream of me,” she whispered, her voice still throaty from the aftermath of intercourse.

“Wait!” William thrust himself up on one arm as she turned to go. “I still don’t know your name! Will I ever see you again?”

She turned and the firelight caught a flash of white teeth as she smiled. “For this thy kindness that thou hast bestowed, this kindness was returned. For thy kindnesses which be continued, these thy kindnesses shall be rewarded.” She opened the door into the hall and turned again to look at William. “As for my name, make one up.” She was gone.

William reached for the bedside table, flicking the light on. The sheets beneath him still smelled of their love, he could still taste her essence mixed with peppermint on his lips and her ivory-hued briefs still lay upon the floor where she had flung them. He picked them up, marveling at the “kindness” which she had given him.

A flash of gold caught his eye as he turned back to the table to extinguish the light. Wonderingly he picked up the golden ring. Simple, w
ith only a small pair of emerald chips inset, it took his breath away. In
side the ring was etched a single word.